Kevin Greeley has been named the new racing secretary for Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse racing at Hoosier Park.
Greeley had been the vice president of racing and racing secretary for Arlington Park for the past four years and is currently assistant racing secretary at Gulfstream Park. He also served as a member of the North American Ratings committee which assigns an international handicap rating to all horses that have run in stakes worth $75,000 or more in North America.
Oaklawn Park has canceled its Saturday and Sunday cards, making for three straight days of lost racing at the hands of a winter storm that has hit Hot Springs, Ark.
Winter weather also caused the cancellation of Saturday's cards at Laurel Park and Charles Town.The season's first Magna 5, which was to begin with Laurel's Dancing Count Stakes, was also called off.
Friday's Oaklawn program was scrapped due to a weather-related power outage in the area. Oaklawn will be open for simulcasting and gaming Saturday and Sunday.
Canterbury Park will hold 34 stakes worth $1.7 million during its 62-day Thoroughbred meet that runs from May 14 through Aug. 29.
The richest races of the meet are scheduled for July 24 when the $100,000 Lady Canterbury will share a card with six Claiming Crown stakes that offer a combined value of $500,000.
The closing day program is Festival of Champions day and will include seven Minnesota-bred stakes worth a total of $345,000.
NEW ORLEANS - Multiple graded stakes winner Four Gifts has moved into trainer Michael Stidham's barn after being purchased at the Fasig-Tipton November sale for $310,000.
Previously trained by Steve Asmussen and owned by Heiligbrodt Stable, Four Gifts followed her victory in the Grade 3 Delta Princess at the end of 2008 with two Grade 3 victories last year, the Eight Belles in May at Churchill, and the Charles Town Oaks in August.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - While the focus of attention here at Gulfstream Park on Sunday will be on the Grade 2 Forward Gal Stakes and the 2010 debut of Eclipse Award champion She Be Wild, the undercard is easily the best of the meet and includes a first-level allowance race for 3-year-old colts and geldings that showcases several potential candidates for the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth on Feb. 20.
The role of leader for the $750,000 Santa Anita Handicap on March 6 is up for grabs. Either the $200,000 Strub Stakes for 4-year-olds next Saturday or the $150,000 San Antonio Handicap next Sunday should help fill that role.
In the final weeks of January, both the Strub and San Antonio lost their expected favorite.
ARCADIA, Calif. - American Lion has become the forgotten 3-year-old in California. Staying away from the races for more than two months can do that for a colt's reputation in the instant gratification world of Kentucky Derby preps.
American Lion has not started since winning the Grade 3 Hollywood Prevue Stakes over seven furlongs on Nov. 21. He will return in the $150,000 Robert Lewis Stakes over 1 1/16 miles next Saturday, the first two-turn stakes for 3-year-olds at the Santa Anita winter meeting.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Owner Mike Repole has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars attempting to upgrade his stable with young horses. But in the last few years, Repole has reached into his pocket time and again to keep an old, low-level claiming horse in his barn.
Justin Vitek had endured a year of unimaginable distress when he returned to Turfway Park to ride in the 10th race on Feb. 14, 2009. Well-wishers crowded into the paddock at the Florence, Ky., track, where Vitek had settled after riding on a variety of circuits since his career began in 1993.
"He looked healthy and good," said Bill Troilo, the now-retired jockey who rode in the same race. "We all knew what he had been through and were hoping it was all behind him."
Officials at Penn National Race Course have accepted the entries of horses owned by Michael Gill for next Wednesday night's card, and asked the Pennsylvania State Horse Racing Commission to investigate a number of recent breakdowns by Gill-owned horses.
The Grantville, Pa., track had not allowed Gill's horses to compete since Jan. 23, when one of his horses broke down and the jockeys refused to ride until his remaining horse on the card was scratched.
